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Do you have any advice for coping with the discomfort?

I didn’t take the saline/get blood returned to me because it started burning. Which is fine, my doc has suggest therapeutic blood draws to deal with occasionally high hemocrit anyway.

But ugh…. The entire experience was really uncomfortable and icky. I’m debating on whether it’s worth going back, but damn if I didn’t enjoy having having a steak and a beer with the money after.

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CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
For you, it absolutely seems worth going back. Health benefit plus money. I treat it like a checkup, too, like if my numbers are way off they’ll be among the first to tell me, make suggestions.

Trying something completely new is going to be uncomfortable! I’d give it a few more tries, at least take them for all their new donor money. You get used to it.

I’d recommend drinking tons of water, day before, morning of, just before you get on the floor. Then it doesn’t hurt if you pound some water after. Drinking lots of water can make for a much faster donation (conversely, not drinking enough water before donations can result in a slow draw nightmare).

You’re kind of asking the wrong person because I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I say push through. Try again. Drink lots of water. If you have any questions or concerns, ask the staff. There’s not a situation you have that they haven’t seen before.

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